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Tuesday, September 23, 2014

September 24th 2014 Mariachis and Mountains!

It's been a busy couple of weeks, but I still managed to get out to explore a couple of times! On the 15th I went out in search of Mexicans! I had read in a Tokyo Timeout magazine several months ago that the Mexican Embassy was going to host a Fiesta celebrating Mexican independence day and I determined to do my best to check it out. The first thing I had to do was map my route out to Odaiba which is right on Tokyo Bay. It's a bit far from where we live so there ended up being buses, trains and monorails involved but I made the journey without a hitch! (I'm getting pretty good at this!)
Odaiba is one of the neatest areas in Tokyo, there is a beach on the bay, tourist boats for cruising and lots of neat shopping! At the Mexican fiesta I enjoyed listening to the mariachi bands, watched some traditional dancing and even enjoyed watching a lucha libre where two Japanese guys tried out the fighting while the Mexican referee "El Jalapeno", looked on! Here's some of the pictures I took from my afternoon there.

                        Girls joining the Mexican festivities  'Japanese style'. I love the parasol touch!

                                                 Lady Liberty overlooking Tokyo Bay
                                                                               


                                                    Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Bay

                                                                Tokyo Bay beach

                                    Decks department store...built to look like a ship's decks
 
                                                               The takoyaki boat!
                                                                 
                                                            Darth Samurai! (So much cooler!)

                                                        Mariachi 'Los Agaves'

                                                           Japanese luchador y El Jalapeno!
                                                                                

                                                         Some views of the city.



 
                                                                  Shinbashi train station

              On Sunday morning after church service we celebrated the folks with birthdays in September. The cake was delicious and we all had a good time!
                                                                           

Yesterday, was a national holiday so Aya had off of work. We decided to go climb Mt. Takao and afterwards to go to the Burger King to try their new Black Burger.

On the way we passed through Chofu and found these folks practicing for a festival.


When we arrived we were able to take a chairlift about half way up the mountain...yay!!!! It was fun!

      Even from half way up the view was gorgeous! You can see Tokyo in the distance!


Then the walking began, we walked and walked and climbed hundreds of stairs on our way to the top!

                               We passed by shrines and statues of 'gods' with nose problems.

                                          This one had more of a beak than a nose.

Apparently taking your picture with a large fan and posing was the popular thing to do.

                                          The architecture was very old and intricate!

                 I thought these little statues staring at us from the mountain side a bit creepy!
                                               
                                                                                 

                                                             Finally, we arrived at the top!      

We took a break to eat the onigiri Aya had made with her mother's homemade umebushi (pickled plum). They were delicious!

                                              The view really was worth all the walking!

Mt. Fuji is back there somewhere but it wasn't quite clear enough out to see it.


  Then we bought an icecream cone and happily went downhill on our way back to the chair lift!

Afterwards we headed to Burger King to try the new Black Burgers they have been advertising!

We got one of each.

                                        Taking a BIG bite! (I'm such an attractive woman!lol)

                                                         The verdict is in! Delicious!

And that brings us to the end of this super long blog post! See ya next time!



Sunday, September 14, 2014

Sept. 14 2014 Work

 
Just in case you think all we do is run around Tokyo playing! After Jimmy and Patsy left Thursday morning we spent the rest of the week being busy! Gary spent Thursday and Friday at the church getting the air conditioners installed and the projector screen up and the projector mounted to the ceiling. He was there until almost midnight both nights. Saturday was clean up day to make it all look like a church again. It took me two hours just to sort and tie up all the cardboard and sort all the recyclables. After all the cleaning was done, and chairs set up, we had to run to the hardware store and then we spent a few hours setting up the sound system. I was climbing the ladder up and down, crawling under tables running cables all over the place! Church planting was easier when we were 30!  Ibuprophen is the old pioneer pastors friend!
                                                                           

Thursday, September 11, 2014

September 11, 2014 Friends and fun!

It's been a busy couple of weeks! The weather has been divine! I've always considered myself a summer person, loving the warmth and beaches but here in Japan my favorite season is Autumn. (followed by Spring and then Summertime - Summer here is just too hot and humid for any kind of comfort!)  Winter, of course, comes in last place...I don't enjoy any kind of cold!
I did a thorough 'Spring' cleaning in anticipation of guests ...who never did actually make it to our apartment.. but that's alright, the house is clean!
Our friends arrived in Tokyo last Saturday and we got them all settled into a nearby hotel. The next day was Sunday and we had two good church services with Jimmy preaching and Patsy singing a couple of songs!
On Monday, we proceeded to show them the town! Monday, I took them out as Gary had church stuff to attend to. First we rode the train to Tokyo station and enjoyed the sites there. We decided to spare our feet and ride the Sky Hop bus which drove us all over Tokyo and allowed us to hop off and on to explore when we wanted. We decided to get off and see Venus Fort, the large mall in Odaiba that looks like an old Venetian village. I hadn't been back since the one time we went with Atsuko back around early 2013. The neat thing is the way the ceiling lights change the time of day from morning to night! (here's a few old photos of when Gary and I went in Jan of 2013...my camera wasn't working on Monday)                                                 


 

 
 We had a delicious lunch at a Hawaiian restaurant. I had a delicious avocado burger and we all shared the best shoestring french-fries with a sweet chili sauce and sour cream!
 
 
We also lucked into a really neat antique car exposition that was going on...it was SO cool!
 
The next day we went exploring the Shibuya area, being sure to take our picture with the famous Hachiko (the dog who faithfully awaited his master at the train station every day even after his owner died) There was a display nearby that showed pictures of the real Hachiko and his owner and also a picture of when Heller Keller visited and was allowed to feel the statue to 'see' Hachiko.
 

Mitos from church met up with us there to give the Pena's a gift she had for them.

There were some young people giving out Free Hugs so they happily took their picture by us!

If you look closely you can see we are holding our stomachs next to the Gaspanic restaurant sign! (We didn't eat there!)

Instead, we went to this restaurant! It's on the 14th floor and we managed a table with a view! Patsy had a chicken egg and rice bowl. Gary had a grilled unagi with rice in a sizzling hot, lava stone bowl, and Jimmy and I did Yakitori! I had 4 different types of yakitori, the regular grilled chicken, grilled leek with a miso-wasabi sauce, bacon wrapped asparagus and one that was so delicious we had to order some for everyone. It was a ground chicken mixture stuffed into a shitake mushroom and grilled.
 
On Wed. we headed to old town Tokyo to visit the Senjoji Temple area and to do some last minute souvenir shopping!  Here's the famous 5 level pagoda.
 


 
 In front of the temple there is a large incense bowl where people use their hands to try and pull the smoke onto themselves for purification.

There is also this flowing fountain where hands are washed and I also saw some folks drink of water.
I couldn't find out who the guy is in the statue but it was pretty cool looking.

Around his feet there are individual dragons with water flowing from their mouths.

Off to the side there was a nice resting area with wooden benches and large stone seats to sit on.
                                                                                  
The overhead is ingeniously designed to give shade. You can see the two trees that provide all of the greenery on top. Their branches are woven out into a flat lattice pattern .

If I could only pick one picture to describe our visit with our friends this is it! With these friends we're always laughing and laughing!

                                                                        Patsy and I

                                                   This was cast back in the 1700's

                    Off in the distance we could see Skytree, the tallest building in Tokyo.
  
Then it was time to head back. We stopped and had some Ramen in Kichijoji and then sadly said goodbye until next time!